Author: enhancingmylife

Hi, my name is Fiona and I am a 30 something year old single mum of two who is embarking on a journey to self improvement and fulfillment. I love spending time with my children, meeting new people and making happy memories.
I work part time in education but my passion lies in beauty, health and wellness. I am a mobile massage and beauty therapist-absolutely love doing massages as I love how relaxed and chilled out they make my client's feel. It's so important to take time out from our busy lives and make time for ourselves. With that in mind I decided to start my own business with Arbonne, a beauty, health and wellness company to further my ambitions of having a successful career in the health and wellness industry and to help others achieve the same.

Gosh it has been ages since I wrote a post. I have had a bit of a break from being on social media so much as I was finding it was taking over my life far too much when I was doing my network marketing business and I had no time for anything else.

Anyway, one thing which I have really been focusing on is exercise and eating better. I did my 30 day to healthy living in Feburary and I did feel amazing while I did it, but I hold my hands up and say that when it was over I 100% craved all the things I had banned. I know it works for some people but it did not for me as it was too strict.

However, after spending March and most April in eating overdrive and gaining the 4lbs I lost plus more I decided something had to be done. I have been sticking to having 1-2 shakes a day with added fruit, nuts or seeds as they fit in with my life meaning that I don’t need to think about what to make for breakfast or lunch. In addition to this I have been having a healthy tea. I haven’t cut anything specific out this time and have found because of that I have not craved it, nor have I been eating spoonfuls of nut butter simply because it was the only thing a little bit tasty that I was allowed.

I have also been motivated with the gym and been out running. With running I decided not to time myself and just stick to 5k and with the gym I am doing a mixture of classes and my own thing on the machines.

I definitely feel so much better when I am exercising and eating healthy however I don’t think restrictive diets are for me.

Just a quick blog post today but I wanted to share a bit about something which I am becoming more and more aware of:

Self Talk; specifically negative self talk. I have read a couple of books. One in particular which resonated with me was You are a Badass which is all about conquering self doubt and becoming the best version of yourself.

Self doubt and negative self talk can end up consuming you. It can start with a thought in the morning like ‘I’m always late’ or ‘I am always losing things’ and the negativity will start to breed and can take over your whole day. These are actually common thoughts I have at the start of the day and it stems down to something which I know I can easily change; my organisation skills and getting up earlier.

I am the kind of person who can be organised or get up early when I know that I absolutely have to. Like years ago when I was a teacher I would be up and out by 7.20am because I wanted to get my admin done prior to starting my day. I also manage to organise my equipment when I am going to see a client. However, when it comes to getting the kids to gymnastics on time or knowing where my keys are it’s a different story.

Therefore sometimes the best way to stop the negative self talk in situations like that is to take simple steps to preventing the situations-like getting up ten minutes earlier or having a specific place to put the keys.

The trickier negative self talk to ditch is that about our personal qualities and abilities. Things like ‘I have no friends’ , ‘I attract one idiot after another’ or ‘nothing every goes right for me’. These are harder to hit on the head as they are instilled in us by our experiences, sometimes right from childhood.

When we have a limiting belief like this which is deep routed, we go around looking for things all the time which confirm this belief. We also end up attracting these situations a it is the view we are putting out there.

For me the first step in challenging this is recognising when we are having a negative belief and acknowledging it. A tip I recently read in Katie Piper’s new book Confidence is to have a word which shuts down the negative thought and stops it in its tracks. It’s best to make it a neutral word and it can be something really random and funny. Mine is ‘Sausages’ .

This word is then your trigger to turn that belief around. Tell yourself the complete opposite. Even if you don;t believe it one bit. Once you start doing this you feel so much better.

The same goes with if you have to do something which you don’t want to do-sometimes for me it is simple things like emptying the cat litter tray or cleaning the bathroom. Nothing can change the fact you have to do it, the only thing which you have any control over is the attitude you have about it. You have a choice about whether to go about it in a positive way or negative complaining way. If it’s a really yucky task like cleaning the bathroom focus on the outcome-‘once it is done it’s done for another week and I can enjoy looking at a clean sparkling sink instead of one full of toothpaste stains.

So anyway, I will be writing a bit more about this as I look into this further but it’s an ongoing thing which I am working on and I think it’s something which can help anyone to ‘enhance’ their lives even in the smallest ways.

We live in a culture where becoming busy has become ‘cool’. How often, when someone we have’t seen for a while gets in touch and asks how things are going do we say; ‘really great but I am so busy.’ I know I do.

How many times a week do we say or think the following;

‘I just don’t know where the time goes?’

‘The weeks just role into one.’

‘The weekend has gone by in the blink of an eye’

As we get older time goes faster, but I think not only that but we live in an age where we expect things to be done quickly. The age of ‘order before 10pm receive before 8am tomorrow’.

As parents we feel the pressure to fill our children’s calendars with football club, horse riding lessons, gymnastics so we ‘never get a minute to ourselves’.

The cost of living means we have to work more hours, sometimes we even need to take on extra work to keep up with growing expenses of raising a family.

All these things take away time for ourselves. It’s so simple but so neglected as we rush around trying to get everything done. Just last night after a full day working, followed by an evening catching up on housework and sorting out the kids, it was after 9.30pm by the time I finally sat down.

So how do we make time for ourselves then? Now I am not for one minute saying stop taking your children to their classes, let your house get really messy or cut your hours at work, but there are a few simple things we can do.

Take 3-5 minutes out every hour-this can be done even if you are at work-slip off to the bathroom, photocopier, kitchen. During this time just become focused on your breathing. It sounds a bit ‘hippyish’ maybe but it will help you regain focus and clarity

Do not feel guilty to schedule ‘your time’ in your diary. Have at least three hours each week where you do something just for you. You could get lost in your favourite book, go for a walk, take a long bath, meditate, watch your favourite film

Become mindful of ‘energy sucking situations’ and realise how valuable your time is. What activities serve you no value? How can you eliminate these? It may involve putting a curfew time on your social media activity or letting go of certain things; like ‘do you really need to iron everything’

Ask for help. I personally have started involving my children in some simple tasks like pairing up socks on the dryer and feeding the cats. It really helps me out and gives us even more of that ‘Team Verron’ feeling

Ok so I am the first person to admit I have a sporadic relationship with exercise at times.

My longest consistent span of regular exercise, however, actually lasted about 18 months and varied between gym visits and running 5k and 10k out doors. During this time I felt great and was eating pretty well too.

However, as I have said in previous posts this kind of took a nose dive in June when I had all my focus on working on my beauty and massage business along side a full time job coupled with spending most weekends and most of the summer away at my parent’s lovely caravan in the Lakes. All this was obviously very positive but unfortunately the thing which slipped was my exercise and in turn my eating habits went a bit rubbish too.

However I won’t go on too much about what I am doing as I have covered this in previous posts but I did want to share my tips for getting motivated to exercise.

Schedule time each week when you will fit it in and treat it like you would going to work, in other words something which is non negotiable. I work on a appointment based schedule and now schedule my gym slots into my diary

2. Get yourself some proper gym stuff which makes you feel good-you don’t need to spend loads. Primark or Tesco have some lovely stuff which is quite cheap.

3. Do something you enjoy. For me it was running at one time but once I stopped enjoying it it became a chore. I will probably get back into it at some point but for now I am happy doing a mix of power walking up hill on the tread mill listening to a good audio and weights classes

4. If you are doing something like gym machines or running or walking, either get some good music downloaded or a good audio book. I am really into personal development so I love to listen to an audio while I workout and this way I am multi tasking and achieving two goals in one

5. Get some ‘fitspiration’ I like to look at ‘body goal’ pictures on Instagram and have a great vision of exactly how I want my body to look and feel and I keep that in mind if I feel unmotivated.

6 If you are a gym person, join the best one you can afford. For me the gym is about the whole experience, like nice changing rooms, hair dryers, hot showers. I think part of the reason I lost my mojo was because I joined a ‘budget’ gym and just didn’t enjoy the whole experience.

So there we have it, a few things which help me. If you have any more please drop me a comment below ..

So when I embarked on my 30 day challenge I decided to take a before photo. I put on a bikini which fitted me perfectly at the start of last summer and was shocked by how small it had become.

My son took the before picture and even said ‘mum have you been eating loads of chocolate or something!!’

Now I am by no means body shaming or saying that I was overweight. At around 10 stone and 5ft 10 it’s pretty average. However, for me, the weight I was carrying was a reflection of my unhealthy lifestyle.

Five years ago a combination of healthy eating, exercise and stress of my marriage ending I lost the two stone I had gained from having kids and living off takeaways with then husband. For the next few years I managed to remain a size 8-10 weighing 9st 3 on a good day and 9st 7 after a treat weekend. Healthy eating and running coupled with the stress of job redundancy and various other life events meant my weight kind of remained constant.

However, the last six months I have been pretty busy getting my massage and beauty business going plus my part time job involves covering lunch time in a school. Not only has this made meal planning and organisation hard but also meant I wasn’t dedicating time to exercise. To add to that I spent a lot of time over summer and weekends at my parent’s caravan in the Lakes which is amazing but all to often picking up pizzas and chocolate for tea or nipping to the chippy also contributed to weight gain.

Since September I was aware the weight I worked so hard to lose was creeping back on but I got into the ‘start Monday’ mindset or ‘one treat won’t hurt, I’ll just be good tomorrow’ . Then of course there was Christmas where being an eating and drinking machine continued. Even in January I pledged to start on January first also embarking on Dry January which lasted a week. However I just wasn’t disciplined enough. I was still in the mind of ‘well I’ll have pizza tonight and be good tomorrow’ .

As January was coming to an end I started to look into the 30 days to healthy living program properly as well as seeing some amazing results of people who had followed it. I realised that by just having the shakes and not embracing clean eating I was not only wasting money on quality shakes intended to support a healthy diet but was getting no where very quickly. My problem is though, I love food and I’ve always had a kind of all or nothing approach so I need something disciplined. I was at a point where I was craving sugar all the time and couldn’t stop at just one square of chocolate.

I realised unless I took the plunge and embraced the full 30 day plan instead of dipping my toe in the weight would continue to creep on.

So here I am on day 12. As I said in previous posts eliminating alcohol, sugar, wheat, dairy and gluten has not been easy. However knowing I have invested in the pack has helped me in sticking to it. Plus the shakes and supplementing drinks have helped bridge the gap between being a sugar addict on a diet of take away and ready meals to a full on clean eater. I prepare at least one meal from scratch every day and add berries, greens and nuts to my shakes so I’m getting so many nutrients.

I feel confident that once I have completed the plan my appetite and cravings levels will be reset. Bring on day 30!

I have been meaning to update for a few days. I am now on day 12 of my 30 day to health living challenge. For anyone who has not read my previous post, for 30 days I am eliminating potential toxins of alcohol, sugar, wheat, dairy and caffeine.

I would love to say it’s been easy and I haven’t had any cravings, but I would be lying. The first couple of days were really hard, I felt hungry, bad tempered and particularly craving a bottle of the usual prosseco and a pizza on a Friday night was hard.

As I am progressing though, I am finding I am sleeping better, my energy levels are more stable and my face looks less bloated. I have lost about 4lbs so far. The protein powder, fizz sticks and surprisingly herbal teas have really been a god send in ensuring a stick to it as it takes the planning out of it.

I have actually been enjoying cooking from scratch and it isn’t as hard or expensive as I anticipated. I use the protein powders to make either a shake for breakfast with added spinach, kale or berries along with chicca seeds, almond butter or cacao powder. Sometimes if I don’t fancy a shake I will make a protein pancake or a mug cake with the powder and have berries on the side.

One naughty treat I have been indulging in is ‘protein chocolates’ which are weirdly addictive-however containing protein powder, pure coconut oil and almond butter they are not low fat (all be it they are good fats) so since I cannot just have one of anything tempting I have had to stop making them as I do want to see more weight loss.

One thing I have realised is that a lot of the eating habits I have are ‘situation triggered’ rather than a physical craving as such. For example, going in to a shop to buy petrol and picking up chocolate, taking the kids into town or to the park and looking for somewhere which sells coffee or, of course, sitting down after all the jobs are done and pouring a glass of wine. I am therefore using affirmations, visualization and distraction to get past this.

One of the things people often say they like about me is I am honest and real. Therefore I am going to be honest right now. My healthy intentions for January pretty much failed at the first hurdle .

Although I have commited to my exercise, the unhealthy habits with food have still been there. Listening to an Audio last weekend called ‘the slight edge’ was kind of a turning point for me as was attending a national training event for my business.

The Slight Edge is basically based on the philosophy that success is a result of simply choices and decisions we make on a daily basis. Likewise bad decisions and choices can lead to unwanted out comes.

Take diet for example; I might think ‘oh I have had a hard day I’ll get a bottle of wine and a pizza for tea’ . Ok so that one instance of doing this might not do any harm but this habit repeated constantly will do plus it leads to unhealthy associations that food is a comfort or reward.

I therefore decided to take action. I am committing to a program called 30 days to healthy living and beyond. In the past I’ve looked at clean eating or raw diets but I’ve always felt over whelmed by the amount of random foods and ingredients and the amount of planning involved.

The 30 days plan kind of acts as a bridge to a clean eating lifestyle by providing nutrition to help support someone like myself who wants to change their eating habits.

I have always been sceptical about ‘shake diets’ but looking into this I realised that this plan isn’t about using shakes to replace meals it’s about using them to supplement and support a healthy diet.

For someone like myself who is always eating on the go and rushing about (and who also hates cooking) I know that two meals a day are taken care of but that I can add ingredients to the protein or I can use it to make pancakes, protein porridge or breakfast bowls which can be packed full of nutrients it would otherwise be hard to obtain.

So why would I bother embarking on this when I’m not over weight?

Basically I have always kind of had this all or nothing approach to food. I’ve gone through times where I’ve lost weight by eating very little and times when I’ve gained weight by eating several takeaways and family size chocolate bars a week. Neither approach is healthy.

I generally follow a diet which is high in refined sugars, I consume a lot of caffeine and also convenience food. Now I’m lucky, my health is generally good. I have a reasonable amount of energy, I’m rarely ill and I’ve never been overweight as such. However this is with a pretty crap diet. What I want to find out is how amazing I can feel and look by completely overhauling my diet and using anazing nutrition to support it.

So without wanting to bang on too much, I’ll be eliminating;

Caffeine , alcohol, sugar, wheat, dairy and gluten.

Along with this I will be using Vegan nutrition by Arbonne to support my journey.

In all honesty the thing which prevented me from embracing the whole plan were: 1. cost-how could I justify spending on myself when I have two kids. But you know what I thought, I need to invest in myself and be the best version of myself BECAUSE I have two kids. I’ll also be looking at improving their diets too. Plus I realised although there’s an initial out lay I will then save money I would normally spend on cakes, alcohol and coffee shop coffees. I sold loads of stuff I didn’t need any more on eBay to fund it so I didn’t feel any need to justify spending on myself too anyway !

2. What others think; that is people saying ‘why are you doing that?’ ‘Don’t be stupid, your already thin’ ‘you’ll end up with an eating disorder’. Then I realised people who criticise me it’s their problem not mine and they probably only wish they had the discipline themselves

3.Fear of success-I know that sounds mad but I have never stuck to anything like this before and that feeling of actually getting my diet sorted and becoming a ‘clean eater’ instead of someone always looking for their next fix is quite scary. I hope that makes sense. In the end I had to say to myself ‘you deserve this’ , ‘you deserve to feel amazing’

Anyway, I have rambled on enough. I’ll be charting my progress on social media just to help myself stay on track really and so I can look at how far I’ve come.

All I ask is if you read this and you know me in real life. Please respect what I’m doing and support and encourage me. Even if it’s not something you would do yourself, it’s important to me ❤️

It’s no Secret that I am a huge fan of the book The Secret and hold firmly the belief that what we think about we bring about.

Never the less, sometimes in reality it really is hard to keep those negative thoughts creeping in. Today, for example, I was feeling a bit fed up, the weather is cold, my kids have been bickering, I have a suspect dental abcess causing a lot of pain not to mention the lingering cough my daughter has which my son will inevitably catch. So yes, while I do try and put out positive thoughts and energy at times it’s a difficult challenge.

One thing which can help when the going gets tough though is visual reminders. I have a number of affirmations which I use daily. At times when I’m not feeling it, I will take out my note book and re write them.

I have a lovely book a friend bought me some time ago called Start your Day with Katie which is an affirmation a day from the amazing Katie Piper.

Another thing which can be helpful is uplifting songs. I have a few favourites but right now the one at the top of my play list is Robbie Williams ‘I love my life’.

Additionally I have my gratitude journal which is a daily reminder to look for the positive in each day.

I also have my vision board in my room which actually I am hoping to update and do a separate post on. Basically a vision board (or at least mine does) includes a collection of quotes and affirmations which have meaning with me along with pictures of what I want for the future such as travel goals, work goals and fitness goals. It’s a great thing to do as a family too.

I would love to hear in the comments what others do to try and keep their thoughts and vision positive. I think once you get into that spiral of ‘I’m so unlucky, this always happens to me etc…’ it’s hard to escape it.

As a massage and beauty therapist my primary aim of my business is to bring the comfort and luxury of the salon or spa into the convenience of your own home. While obviously a spa day or visit to the salon is a lovely treat, with our increasingly busy lives it is not always possible. I know personally I have cancelled salon appointments simply because I don’t have time or because I cannot be bothered getting in the car and riving there.

There are numerous benefits of a home based treatment;

Drift away with a massage: Massage can be an immensely relaxing treatment with benefits such as aiding peaceful sleep and relieving stress not the mention the hydrating benefits of the massage oil. Therefor having to get dressed into sensible clothes and wake your self up enough to drive home post massage can counteract the benefits you have just experienced. After receiving a massage in your own home, you can simply slip into pajamas and dressing gown, make yourself a herbal tea and relax on the sofa or even head off for an early night.

When I come to a clients house I ensure I bring a fluffy blanket, dim the lights and play soothing music to allow my clients to drift off and imagine they are where ever they want to be.

Full benefits of a Facial- After receiving a facial it is recommended that you do not wear makeup for 24 hours afterwards in order to receive the full benefits. This can be tricky if you have to go from salon to petrol station to shops, particularly if your facial has been an effective enough one to leave you with post treatment redness.

I offer evening and weekend appointments so that my clients can book in when they have gone about their daily routine and are settled at home for the evening or chilling on a Saturday or Sunday.

No chilly toes after a pedicure- you can’t beat a pedicure, particularly a luxury one involving heated treatment boots in winter.The downside, however is inevitably even if you think they are dry, they aren’t really and you run the risk of either smudging them in socks or braving flip flops and even then not smudging them is a bit of a chore. With a home pedicure you can put the heating on or sit in front of the fire with bare feet until you are sure your polish is completely dry.

Avoid being seen with post massage hair- One of my favourite treatments is Indian head massage or scalp massage as part of a facial. The downside of this relaxing treatment however is crazy hair which sticks out at all angles-particularly if, like me you have naturally curly, prone to frizz hair. Experience a home scalp massage and eliminate the inevitable risk of bumping into that glamorous work colleague or ex boyfriend on your way home.

Let your nails dry while you watch TV- although gel polish is a favourite with most clients, some still prefer traditional polish. The obvious downside is the amount of time it takes to dry. Getting your coat on, your keys out of your bag and driving home without smudging those perfect nails can be a mammoth task. A home manicure removes these risks. As long as you remember to go to the toilet prior to having your nails done you can sit and watch TV or read a book and wait until your nails are fully dry.

As a mobile therapist I do sometimes think I would love the convenience of having a salon space to work from however, my clients tell me that they love the convenience of being able to have treatments, particularly massages at home.

I have had this blog post in mind for a few days but haven’t got around to actually typing it out.

January gets such a bad rep, the other day while I was plodding away on the treadmill I was thinking how sad it was that Christmas is over, it’s cold and there is nothing to look forward to, not to mention being skint from Christmas and on a healthy eating challenge. However, that then got me thinking-a lot of the things we look forward to or associate with having a good time involve spending money, eating lots and often drinking alcohol too. Why is this? I know it’s certainly true of me. In the past when I have been on a diet I have treated myself to a shopping spree to cheer myself up. Or likewise if I have been on a spending diet or skint I’ll cheer myself up with naughty food. Talking to other people, the general consensus is January is a bit of a rubbish come down after the excitement of Christmas.

It got me wondering then, what can I do to change these associations or pleasure and enjoyment being from potentially unhealthy habits.From this I came to a couple of conclusions. The first being about balance really, rather than needing to always have something to look forward to or counting down the days to the weekend or next holiday or when the weather gets warmer or lights get lighter I should learn to be more present in the moment. Life shouldn’t need to be about having something to look forward to. It should be balanced enough that you don’t need something to be counting down to. Nor should it be necessary to need to spend money, eat unhealthy food or drink alcohol as means of seeking pleasure.

At first I thought maybe have something simple to look forward to each day like a bath, reading a good book or listening to a meditation app. These are positive habits. I then also thought I should live in the moment more rather than needing ‘something to look forward to’. Don’t get me wrong it is nice to have a treat-As a massage therapist I’m advertising my January offers as ‘something to look forward to after the excitement of Christmas. However at the same time it’s important to be present in the moment a well at looking at changes we can make to make our lives more balanced.

What do you think? It’s something I am kind of working on as I don’t have a specific answer yet, it was just a thought which came over me and got me thinking..